I have a vison for the future and I would like your help to see it fufilled.
I thoroughly believe that no matter how far down you have gone there is a way back and that your life can benefit others all you need is the right tools and support to do so.
My vision is built around this fact.
My journey as you will read in my book has taken me many places and given many skills that I am now having a chance at utilising. I find that there are not many things that I am given to do that with guidance and determination I can't fulfill in fact to date since getting my life back on track I've been pretty successful in overcoming every hurdle I've faced.
I'm nothing special, I'm just a person who doesn't want to go back to where he came from and believes that the best way to do so is to help others. If I can do it then so can anybody else.
Most of the people that i have met through life who have had similar problems to myself have very little self belief and to be honest are not given the right opportunities to get it.
One of the best things to happen to me and probably the most significant to my own personal recovery other than the actual stopping drinking was to start working. firstly I did some voluntary work for a local Substance misuse team, then when I couldn't get a proper job because of my background I started doing odd jobs for people, a bit of decorating, gardening even some catering for birthday parties. what I found was that the more I did the more confident I became in my abilities which in turn increased my self belief. The only problem was that due to my background I was unable to get a full time job doing the type of work I wanted to do.
This is the case for most people who are coming from my sort of background. At the end of the day I had the skills but I didn't have the qualifications or the professional exceperiance that the people who I was trying to get work from wanted. I believe that it was more like they didn't want to take the chance of someone who has been a loser all their lives coming in to their already perfect team and being a waste of space at the end of the day what did I know. The unfortunate thing in my case was the people that were refusing to employ me were the very ones who are paid to get people like me to sort out their lives. Its easy to tell people what to do, its not so easy to put your money where your mouth is and give them a chance yourself.
I'm not saying that this is true of everybody as Birmingham YMCA gave me a chance when no one else would. But I'm sure if you ask them they will tell you that it worked well in their favor. I've achieved a great deal since being with them and now have lots of confidence to do more.
This is where my Vision starts
Hostels, shelters, prisons and rehabs are full of highly skilled people who can't get the jobs which enhance them as people. Some do but few and far between. Most people are forced to take jobs with people that don't understand them and give them jobs that are menial and don't take much responsibility. They become frustrated and disillousend and eventually leave or worse.
Over the years Ive met incredible artists, people who can strip down a broken PC and put it all back together so that it works. Ive met chefs that could give Gordon Ramsey a run for his money. I even spent 13 months in rehab with a nuclear physicist who you couldn't get a normal conversation out of. Ive spent time with carpenters, plumbers, writers,and probably every other trade you can think of. But there they were just like me in a mess and feeling pretty hopeless.
People need to take responsibility, the more responsibility you give a person the more they grow the more they grow the more responsibility they are able to handle. Of course when working with people from troubled backgrounds you have to be careful that you only give them measured responsibility or you run the risk of setting them up to fail, But still we shouldn't avoid giving that responsibility. Life is all about risk.
What really frustrates me is that Hostels etc are full of highly skilled talented people who if just given the chance would make anybody proud. The problem is that if they did take jobs they would probably lose their accommodation as to stay in a hostel cost more than a mortgage these days and as finding accommodation is difficult they are in a lose lose situation.
Everything is stacked against those trying to rebuild their lives. I want give people more than just hope, I want to give them a fresh chance.
I have been working for the last five years on developing and trying out various business ideas. To date I've learned an awful lot about how not to run a business and it may take me another twenty years to be successful in my endeavors. Thomas Edison was asked upon his 1000th unsuccessful attempt at creating the light bulb how it felt to have failed 1000 times. He replied that he had not failed. He had in fact been successful at finding a thousand ways not to create the lightbulb and all he had to do was find the one way do it. Eventually he succeeded and today we have the luxury of lighting in our home due to this man's determination not to give up. Imagine how things would be if when asked that question Edison said you know what your right, I might as well give up.
Well there's a little bit of Edison in me. I will succeed in seeing my vision fulfilled. My whole purpose in developing this website is to show people that anything can be achieved if the determination is there.
I have no real education to speak of other than the education that life has given me along my journey but I'm sure you must have realised by now that I'm not that stupid either. The fact is that I'm having the courage to have a go. Up to now I have pretty much been on my own in developing my ideas and putting them to work. Now I am looking for a team of people that will help my vision become a reality.
You see I know that I don't have the skills to make it work on my own, therefore I am looking for people with the skills that I am lacking (of which there are many) to step up to the mark and join me on what I see as an excellent and most fulfilling journey.
I don't care who you are, where your coming from or how much money you have or don't have all I care about is what you can bring to the table in helping this vision become a reality.
If you want to know more then email me